Method for supressing surrounding noise in a hands-free device and hands-free device

ABSTRACT

In order to suppress as much noise as possible in a hands-free device in a motor vehicle, for example, two microphones (M 1 , M 2 ) are spaced a certain distance apart, the output signals (MS 1 , MS 2 ) of which are added in an adder (AD) and subtracted in a subtracter (SU). The sum signal (S) of the adder (AD) undergoes a Fourier transform in a first Fourier transformer (F 1 ), and the difference signal (D) of the subtracter (SU) undergoes a Fourier transform in a second Fourier transformer (F 2 ). From the two Fourier transforms R(f) and D(f), a speech pause detector (P) detects speech pauses, during which a third arithmetic unit (R) calculates the transfer function H T  of an adaptive transformation filter (TF). The transfer function of a spectral subtraction filter (SF), at the input of which the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal (S) is applied, is generated from the spectral power density S rr  of the sum signal (S) and from the interference power density S nn  generated by the adaptive transformation filter (TF). The output of the spectral subtraction filter (SF) is connected to the input of an inverse Fourier transformer (IF), at the output of which an audio signal (A) can be picked up in the time domain which is essentially free of ambient noise.

The invention relates to a method for suppressing ambient noise in a hands-free device having two microphones spaced a predetermined distance apart.

The invention further relates to a hands-free device having two microphones spaced a predetermined distance apart.

Ambient noise represents a significant interference factor for the use of hands-free devices, which interference factor can significantly degrade the intelligibility of speech. Car phones are equipped with hands-free devices to allow the driver to concentrate fully on driving the vehicle and on traffic. However, particularly loud and interfering ambient noise is encountered in a vehicle.

The goal of the invention is therefore to design both a method for suppressing ambient noise for a hands-free device, as well as a hands-free device, in such a way that ambient noise is suppressed as completely as possible.

In terms of a method, this goal is achieved by the features of claim 1.

In terms of a device, this goal is achieved by the features of claim 10.

The hands-free device according to the invention is equipped with two microphones which are spaced a predetermined distance apart. The distance selected for the speaker relative to the microphones is smaller than the so-called diffuse-field distance, so that the direct sound components from the speaker at the location of the microphones predominate over the reflective components occurring within the space.

From the microphone signals supplied by the microphones, the sum and difference signal is generated from which the Fourier transform of the sum signal and the Fourier transform of the difference signal are generated.

From these Fourier transforms, the speech pauses are detected, for example, by determining their average short-term power levels. During speech pauses, the short-term power levels of the sum and difference signal are approximately equal, since for uncorrelated signal components it is unimportant whether these are added or subtracted before the calculation of power whereas, based on the strongly correlated speech component, when speech begins the short-term power within the sum signal rises significantly relative to the short-term power in the difference signal. This rise is easily detected and exploited to reliably detect a speech pause. As a result, a speech pause can be detected with great reliability even in the case of loud ambient noise.

In the method according to the invention, the spectral power density is determined from the Fourier transform of the sum signal and from the Fourier transform of the difference signal, from which the transfer function for an adaptive transformation filter is calculated. By multiplying the power density of the Fourier transform of the difference signal by its transfer function, this adaptive transformation filter generates the interference power density. From the spectral power density of the Fourier transform of the sum signal and from the interference power density generated by the adaptive transformation filter, the transfer function of an analogous adaptive spectral subtraction filter is calculated which filters the Fourier transform of the sum signal and supplies an audio signal essentially free of ambient noise at its output in the frequency domain, which signal is transformed back to the time domain using an inverse Fourier transform. At the output of this inverse Fourier transform, an audio or speech signal essentially free of ambient noise can be picked up in the time domain and then processed further.

The method according to the invention and the hands-free device according to the invention are discussed and explained below in more detail based on the embodiment shown in the Figure.

The output of a first microphone M1 is connected to the first input of an adder AD and the first input of a subtracter SU, while the output of a second microphone M2 is connected to the second input of the adder AD and to the second input of the subtracter SU. The output of adder AD is connected to the input of a first Fourier transformer F1, the output of which is connected to the first input of a speech pause detector P, to the input of a first arithmetic unit LS to calculate the spectral power density S_(rr) of the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal S, and to the input of an adaptive spectral subtraction filter SF.

The output of the subtracter SU is connected to the input of a second Fourier transformer F2, the output of which is connected to the second input of the speech pause detector P and to the input of a second arithmetic unit LD to calculate the spectral power density S_(DD) of the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal D. The output of the first arithmetic unit LS is connected to a third arithmetic unit to calculate the transfer function of an adaptive transformation filter TF, and to the first control input of the adaptive spectral subtraction filter SF, the output of which is connected to the input of an inverse Fourier transformer IF. The output of the arithmetic unit LD is connected to the third arithmetic unit R, and to the input of the adaptive transformation filter TF, the output of which is connected to the second control input of the adaptive spectral subtraction filter SF. The output of the speech pause detector P is also connected to third arithmetic unit R, the output of which is connected to the control input of the adaptive transformation filter TF.

As mentioned above, the two microphones M1 and M2 are spaced by a distance which is smaller than the so-called diffuse-field distance. For this reason, the direct sound components of the speaker predominate at the site of the microphone over the reflection components occurring within a closed space, such as the interior of a vehicle.

The sum signal S of the microphone signals MS1 and MS2 from the two microphones M1 and M2 is generated in adder AD, while the difference signal D of microphone signals MS1 and MS2 is generated in subtracter SU.

First Fourier transformer F1 generates the Fourier transform R(f) of sum signal S. Similarly, second Fourier transformer F2 generates the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal D.

The short-term power of the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal S and of the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal D is determined in speech pause detector P. During pauses in speech, the two short-term power levels differ hardly at all since it is unimportant for the uncorrelated speech components whether they are added or subtracted before the power calculation. When speech begins, on the other hand, the short-term power within the sum signal rises significantly relative to the short-term power in the difference signal due to the strongly correlated speech component. This rise thus indicates the end of a speech pause and the beginning of speech.

First arithmetic unit LS uses time averaging to calculate spectral power density S_(rr) of Fourier transform R(f) of sum signal S. Similarly, second arithmetic unit LD calculates the spectral power density S_(DD) of Fourier transform D(f) of difference signal D. From the power density S_(rrp)(f) and the spectral power density S_(DDp)(f) during the speech pauses, third arithmetic unit R now calculates the transfer function H_(T)(f) of the adaptive transformation filter TF using the following equation (1): H _(T)(f)=S _(rrp)(f)/S _(DDp)(f)  (1) Preferably, an additional time averaging—that is, a smoothing—of the coefficients of the transfer function thus obtained is used to significantly improve the suppression of ambient noise by preventing the occurrence of so-called artifacts, often called “musical tones.”

Spectral power density S_(rr)(f) is obtained from Fourier transform R(f) of sum signal S by time averaging, while in analogous fashion spectral power density S_(DD)(f) is calculated by time averaging from Fourier transform D(f) of difference signal D.

For example, spectral power density S_(rr) is calculated using the following equation (2): S _(rr)(f,k)=c*|R(f)|²+(1−c)*S _(rr)(f,k−1)  (2)

In analogous fashion, spectral power density S_(DD)(f) is, for example, calculated using the equation (3): S _(DD)(f,k)=c*|D(f)|²+(1−c)*S _(DD)(f,k−1)  (3) The term c is a constant between 0 and 1 which determines the averaging time period. When c=1, no time averaging take place; instead the absolute squares of Fourier transforms R(f) and D(f) are taken as the estimates for the spectral power densities. The calculation of the residual spectral power densities required to implement the method according to the invention is preferably performed in the same manner.

Adaptive transformation filter TF uses its transfer function H_(T)(f) to generate the interference power density Sn from spectral power density S_(DD)(f) of Fourier transform D(f) using the following equation (4): S _(nn)(f)=H _(T) *S _(DD)(f)  (4) Using the interference power density S_(nn) calculated from Fourier transform D(f) of difference signal D and the spectral power density S_(rr) of the sum signal calculated by first arithmetic unit LS, that is, of the noisy signal, the transfer function H_(sub) of the spectral subtraction filter SF is calculated as specified by (5): H _(sub)(f)=1−a*S _(nn)(f)/S _(rr)(f) for 1−a*S _(nn)(f)/S _(rr)(f)>b H _(sub)(f)=b for 1−a*S _(nn)(f)/S _(rr)(f)≦b The parameter a represents the so-called overestimate factor, while b represents the so-called “spectral floor.”

The interference components picked up by microphones M1 and M2, which strike microphones M1 and M2 as diffuse sound waves, can be viewed as virtually uncorrelated for almost the entire frequency range of interest. However, there does exist for low frequencies a certain correlation dependent on the relative spacing of the two microphones M1 and M2, which correlation results in the interference components contained in the reference signal appearing to be high-pass-filtered to a certain extent. In order to prevent a faulty estimation of the low-frequency interference components in the spectral subtraction, a spectral boost of the low-frequency components of the reference signal is performed by the adaptive transformation filter TF shown in the figure.

The method according to the invention and the hands-free device according to the invention, which are particularly suitable for a car phone, are distinguished by excellent speech quality and intelligibility since the estimated value for the interference power density S_(nn) is continuously updated independently of the speech activity. As a result, the transfer function of spectral subtraction filter SF is also continuously updated, both during speech activity and during speech pauses. As was mentioned above, speech pauses are detected reliably and precisely, this detection being necessary to update transformation filter TF.

The audio signal at the output of spectral subtraction filter SF, which signal is essentially free of ambient noise, is fed to an inverse Fourier transformer IF which transforms the audio signal back to the time domain.

LIST OF REFERENCE NOTATIONS

-   A audio signal transformed back to the time domain -   AD adder -   D difference signal -   D(f) Fourier transform of the difference signal -   F1 first Fourier transformer -   F2 second Fourier transformer -   H_(sub) transfer function of the spectral subtraction filter -   H_(T) transfer function of the transformation filter -   IF inverse Fourier transformer -   LD second arithmetic unit for calculating the spectral power density -   LS first arithmetic unit for calculating the spectral power density -   MS1 microphone signal -   MS2 microphone signal -   M1 microphone -   M2 microphone -   P speech pause detector -   R third arithmetic unit for calculating the transfer function of the     transformation filter -   R(f) Fourier transform of the sum signal -   S sum signal -   SF spectral subtraction filter -   SU subtracter -   S_(DD) spectral power density of the difference signal -   S_(nn) interference power density -   S_(rr) spectral power density of the sum signal -   TF transformation filter 

1. A method of suppressing ambient noise in a hands-free device having two microphones (M1, M2) spaced a predetermined distance apart, each of which supplies a microphone signal (MS1, MS2) comprising: generating a sum signal (S) and a difference signal (D) of the two microphone signals (MS1, MS2); computing a Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal (S) and the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal (D); detecting speech pauses from the Fourier transforms R(f) and D(f); determining spectral power density S_(rr) from the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal (S); determining spectral power density S_(DD) from the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal (D); calculating the transfer function H_(T)(f) for an adaptive transformation filter (TF) from the spectral power density S_(rr) of the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal (S), and from the spectral power density S_(DD) of the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal (D); generating the interference power density S_(nn)(f) by multiplying the power density S_(DD) of the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal (D) by its transfer function H_(T)(f); calculating the transfer function H_(sub)(f) of a spectral subtraction filter (SF) from the interference power density S_(nn)(f) and from the spectral power density S_(rr) of the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal (S); filtering, the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal (S) with the spectral subtraction filter (SF); and transforming the output signal of the spectral subtraction filter (SF) back to the time domain.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transfer function H_(T)(f) of the transformation filter (TF) is generated during speech pauses using the equation: H _(T)(f)=S _(rrp)(f)/S _(DDp)(f)
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the coefficients of the transfer function H_(T)(f) of the transformation filter (TF) are averaged over time.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculation of the spectral power density S_(rr) from the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal (S), and of the spectral power density S_(DD) from the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal (D), is performed by time averaging.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the spectral power density S_(rr) is calculated using the equation: S _(rr)(f,k)=c*|R(f)|²+(1−c)*S _(rr)(f,k−1) where k represents the time index, and c is a constant for determining the averaging period.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein the spectral power density S_(DD) is calculated using the following equation: S _(DD)(f,k)=c*|D(f)|²+(1−c)*S _(DD)(f,k−1) where k represents a time index, and c is a constant for determining the averaging period.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein in order to detect the speech pauses the short-term power of the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal (S) and of the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal (D) is determined, and that a speech pause is detected whenever the two determined short-term power levels lie within a predetermined common tolerance range.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the transfer function H_(sub)(f) of the spectral subtraction filter (SF) is calculated using the equations: H _(sub)(f)=1−a*S _(nn)(f)/S _(rr)(f) for 1−a*S _(nn)(f)/S _(rr)(f)>b H _(sub)(f)=b for 1−a*S _(nn)(f)/S _(rr)(f)≦b where a represents an overestimation factor and b represents a spectral floor.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the transit time differences between the two microphone signals (MS1, MS2) are equalized.
 10. Hands-free device having two microphones spaced a predetermined distance apart (M1, M2), characterized in that the output of the first microphone (M1) is connected to the first input of an adder (AD) and to the first input of a subtracter (SU); that the output of the second microphone (M2) is connected to the second input of the adder (AD) and the second input of the subtracter (SU); that the output of the adder (AD) is connected to the input of a first Fourier transformer (F1), the output of which is connected to the first input of a speech pause detector (P), to the input of a first arithmetic unit (LS) to calculate the spectral power density S_(rr), and to the input of an adaptive spectral subtraction filter (SF); that the output of the subtracter (SU) is connected to the input of a second Fourier transformer (F2), the output of which is connected to the second input of the speech pause detector (P), and to the input of a second arithmetic unit (LD) to calculate the spectral power density S_(DD); that the outputs of the speech pause detector (P), first arithmetic unit (LS), and second arithmetic unit (LD) are connected to a third arithmetic unit (R) to calculate the transfer function H_(T)(f) of an adaptive transformation filter (TF); that the output of the first arithmetic unit (LS) is connected to the first control input of the adaptive spectral subtraction filter (SF); that the output of the third arithmetic unit (R) is connected to the control input of the adaptive transformation filter (TF), the input of which is connected to the output of the second arithmetic unit (LD), and the output of which is connected to the second control input of the adaptive spectral subtraction filter (SF); and that the output of the adaptive spectral subtraction filter (SF) is connected to the input of an inverse Fourier transformer (IF), at the output of which an audio signal (A) can be picked up which has been transformed back to the time domain.
 11. The hands-free device of claim 10, wherein the transfer function H_(T)(f) of the transformation filter (TF) is generated during the speech pauses using the following equation: H _(T)(f)=S _(rrp)(f)/S _(DDp)(f)
 12. The hands-free device of claim 11, wherein the coefficients of the transfer function H_(T)(f) of the transformation filter (TF) are averaged over time.
 13. The hands-free device of claim 10, wherein the spectral power density S_(rr) is generated by time averaging from the Fourier transform R(f) of the sum signal (S), and that the spectral power density S_(DD) is generated by time averaging from the Fourier transform D(f) of the difference signal (D).
 14. The hands-free device of claim 13, wherein the spectral power density S_(rr) is generated using the equation: S _(rr)(f,k)=c*|R(f)|²+(1−c)*S _(rr)(f,k−1) where k represents a time index and c is a constant to determine the averaging period.
 15. The hands-free device of claim 13, wherein the spectral power density S_(DD) is calculated using the equation: S _(DD)(f,k)=c*|D(f)|²+(1−c)*S _(DD)(f,k−1) where k represents a time index, and c is a constant to determine the averaging period.
 16. (canceled)
 17. The hands-free device of claim 10, wherein the transfer function H_(sub)(f) of the spectral function filter (SF) is calculated using the following equation: H _(sub)(f)=1−a*S _(nn)(f)/S_(rr)(f) for 1−a*S _(nn)(f)/S _(rr)(f)>b H _(sub)(f)=b for 1−a*S _(nn)(f)/S _(rr)(f)≦b where a represents the so-called “overestimate factor” and b represents the “spectral floor.”
 18. The hands-free device of claim 10, wherein the transit time differences between the two microphone signals (M1, M2) are able to be equalized. 